#atheist literature

[atheostic]

The Religion Virus: Why We Believe in God by Craig A James

[oak1985]

Did anyone else, when reading Good Omens, think that part of the point was that it’s unclear whether or not God exists in-universe? Like, there’s these two superpowers with incredibly similar bureaucracies (which run as not-at-all-thinly-veiled metaphors for the USSR and the US) and everyone in both bureaucracies—Hell as well as Heaven—are obsessed with figuring out God’s endgame. Said bureaucracies are both not very good at doing their actually job or even knowing what’s going on most of the time. And the literal end of the earth is attended by Satan (leader of Hell) and….Metatron, the Voice of God. When God doesn’t show up to Armageddon, I just assumed that meant God didn’t exist. Or at least, that part of the point is that everyone’s constantly reacting to an entity that may or may not actually exist but they build their whole lives around Him anyway.

Was this just my weird intrinsic agnosticism or did other people read it that way too?

[crazystonergirl]

“When god became lonely he created man,

or was it

When man became lonely he created god.”

— Melanie Exler, Strengthenizer

[betterbooktitles]

What makes a Jesuit boys’ school so entertaining is the irreverence in the face of certain damnation. There were adult authority figures, some imbued with the ability to forgive Mortal Sin, telling us we were going to Hell if we didn’t take our morality seriously. In response, we laughed and cracked jokes. We laughed so hard, in part, because the stakes were so high. If you could mock the Most Important Question, you could likely laugh off anything.

Humor was what opened me up to the idea that I didn’t share the values of the men teaching me to be a “good” person. Humor also taught me that I didn’t have to accept any of it.

The first time I heard shade thrown at the Theology department was during my freshman year when my favorite teacher sitting in a room in the fourth floor English department, in an entirely separate building from the Theology and History classrooms asked “what movie are they showing you over there this week?” It was true that for half the year, Theology teachers showed movies 40 minutes at a time to make important philosophical points. They screened The Matrix, Life is Beautiful (watched in tandem with our reading of Man’s Search for Meaning), and, my personal favorite The Shawshank Redemption which they showed to us in the summer before 9th grade to let us know what Jesuit school would resemble: something close to surviving solitary confinement. If you had music in your mind, you might make it out. I don’t doubt the efficacy of showing these movies to us to teach moral lessons. It was a better strategy than trying to force teenagers to read. I had never heard anyone mock the department, though, especially not another teacher.

To be clear, this scrutiny, at least of the lay teachers in the Theology department was justified. They fed us one-sided anti-intellectual drivel that had almost nothing to do with Catholic Dogma. Instead of learning about a biblical text, we spent hours listening to a guy tell us evolution was “just a theory,” that being gay was a choice, and that abortion was wrong in any instance (whatever your personal beliefs, understand that it’s kind of hard to hear both sides of that argument at an all-male school where the adult men were the authority on ethics). Then they showed us clips from Fox News of Terri Schiavo and told us the “correct” Christian response to the news.

One day, again in my freshman year when I was scared to question anything because of an inordinate fear that I could be thrown out of school at any moment, our Theology teacher pressed play on The Emperor’s Club (a 2002 Kevin Kline movie about a boy’s prep school that served in our teacher’s mind as some ethic antithesis to the more beloved (and frankly more entertaining) Dead Poets Society). A student in the back row raised his hand, and our teacher paused the movie. We sat in the dark room and rolled our eyes. Make this quick, buddy. We’ve got a movie to watch here!

“Jeff?” our teacher said, lifting his eyebrows.

“Yes, I was wondering about the prayer we read before class today,” Jeff said. He was a senior, a bit portly which was only noticeable because many kids did not bother buying new dress shirts every year. Once the stress of school forced you to eat your feelings four years in a row, you wound up with a gut putting pressure on your old shirts’ buttons. “It says in the prayer…” Jeff continued, “that Jesus descended into Hell. What’s that about?” 

“Well,” our teacher said, looking excited to finally talk about religion instead of answering some weird kid’s question about the ethics of having sex with aliens should they ever land on Earth, “according to scripture, we know the gates of Heaven were closed for a time, so when Jesus died he descended into hell first to free other righteous souls…”

“Yeah, a quick follow-up on that,” Jeff said, sounding interested, “does anyone believe this shit?” 

The cackles that erupted in the room nearly overwhelmed our teacher’s angry tirade. Jeff was sent to the Vice Principal’s office to await his judgment. It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment you were allowed not only to question those teaching us about religion but you were allowed to reject the faith altogether. 

From there, every argument began to collapse, mostly through funny moments:

A teacher tried to tell us IVF was wrong because “you have to jerk off into a cup. It’s not right.” One kid announced: “I’ve done weirder!” Guffaws. Cheers.

Another teacher claimed gay sex was always wrong because the sex itself was not ‘open to creating human life,’ to which a brave gay student volunteered “Oh, I’m open to it. I’ll keep trying and let you know if there’s a miracle.” Applause. 

When a teacher said video games could be considered a sin if they distract you from work, someone, half-asleep in the front row, let out a loud “Ah, shut up!” that made us all giggle.

My fellow students weren’t playing the game, arguing with the teacher on his terms, using logic. They were dismissing the arguments flippantly, and no adult could reply unless they were funny themselves. 

Read the rest here.

[flowersforfrancis]

[thepersonalwords]

Spiritual leaders, priests and prophets are lamps burning in the dark, seeking meaning for humanity.

Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity

[jareckiworld]

Vladimiro Elvieri — Portrait of Witold Gombrowicz (drypoint, abrasive paper on plexiglass, 2022)

[tvlipsandbread]

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is fulfilling of the law"

- Romans 13 : 10

[cvbullshit]

I finally got an order delivered, four of the things in it were Doki Doki Literature Club keychains!

Sayori and Yuri are already planning a date <3

And Science is being a simp

[deadpanwalking]

Good evening, why do you think americans are obsessed with Doctor Zhivago and what do you think of the novel?

I'm being charitable when I say that there are maybe five Russian books that John Liquor American can readily name, and all of them have been made into movies and/or musicals. With Zhivago, part of the reason it became a cultural touchstone so quickly has to do with the circumstances of its publication in the United States during the Cold War, closely followed by the epic David Lean film, in which Omar Sharif is so hot that it hardly matters that the movie itself is mid.

In regards to Zhivago's specific appeal to American sensibilities, I think a lot of it has to do with that adage about how an English language romance begins with a kiss and ends in a wedding, while a Russian language romance will begin with a kiss and end in Siberia. The weddings are fun but after all that stale cake, you want to want, and you want to be left wanting.

My relationship with Doctor Zhivago is that it's fundamental to my understanding of human dignity and human frailty. It is also a very nice love story.

[atheostic]

God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman 

[the-useless-lesbians-hq]

Happiness will be my rebellion.

[alex-a-roman]

Mysterious ways 

Might as well create my own saviour, That actually steps up When a child with cancer says goodbye To his crying parents; There are no mysterious ways, There’s only silence, A vulgar indifference, How useless! Each day, innocents die And still no sign of you, Still no sign of your god, "Mysterious ways" How convenient Benevolence omnipotence Leaving us all behind.

~ A. A. Roman

[mother-of-houseplants-2]

i don’t wish i was catholic but i wish i knew more about catholicism/christianity for the sole purpose of being slightly more insane about lapsed-catholic gallaghers

[academicelephant]

Penn on loving his children: My mom and dad said that I would never understand how much they loved me until I had my own children. -- It’s the love you don’t choose, the animal love that gives the reason to live. -- I chose to love my friends. I chose to love my wife. I think I even chose to love my parents as I got older. But I had no say in loving my children. The love for my children is beyond my control. It's animal. -- I love my children like I need to breathe.